


these arms of mine are strong (you can make a home of them)

by olivemartini



Series: All The Lovely Ones Have Scars [23]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Pepper, F/M, Protective Tony, people are jerks, rude comments, they're still in Italy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-11 00:36:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15303582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: People think that because "assistant" is Pepper's official job title, she doesn't know things.Like how to speak Italian.Those people are wrong.





	these arms of mine are strong (you can make a home of them)

Sometimes, people look at her and make assumptions.

The most common assumption is that because she is an assistant ( _only an assistant, and really, the worst part is that its the truth_ ) she is not smart enough, that she doesn't understand what they talk about in these SI meetings full of men in fancy suits, that she was only staying at Tony's side because she makes good coffee and looks good in a skirt.

For the most part, it doesn't bother her, but there is always the needling thought that that was how she ended up here in the first place, just Tony flipping through a pile of resumes and pointing at whatever one he thought had the prettiest face ( _it had been the first job application that asked for a full body photograph, which was just an HR nightmare waiting to happen.  She sent in a headshot_ ), and that he really does take for granted who she is and what she can do, so sometimes he's one of those people who look at her and assume that she cannot do things.

Like speak Italian.

He's been translating for her all weekend, and she lets him, just because she likes having the excuse of a language barrier in her back pocket to use in case she gets cornered by someone that she finds too boring or too abrasive or just  _not Tony,_ and for the most part, it works.  He orders her food, and she says thank you.  He keeps up a running commentary on who they are passing and which person she should know and which scientist has made what breakthrough.  And when he flirts with the supermodels that were there for their fashion show ( _a bit half heartedly, she noticed, but hey, it's been a long week_ ) she can pretend that it doesn't take any extra effort to keep the polite smile on her face, so it's a good deal, except for the small problem that since Tony is operating under the assumption that she cannot understand anything that the people around them are saying, everyone else does, too.

"Look at that one,"  Comes from the bar, and Pepper does not turn around even though she wants to throw her drink in the man' face.  Tony, though, has heard and pretends that he doesn't, probably figuring what she doesn't know won't hurt her, but he does steer her to the opposite side of the room fairly fast, his back stiff and arm tight around her shoulders.

That's the tamest one.  She's heard a lot worse, about what they liked about her ( _look at that ass, those legs, forget that, I heard from a friend of a friend that she's amazing in bed, think she'd stop looking at Tony long enough to give me a try?_ ) and what they wanted to do with her ( _everything, everywhere_ ) and how they heard that she and Tony were sharing a room, how they must be screwing and that was clearly how she had kept her job for so long, and the crowd seemed to be split down the middle as to who was could do better, her or Tony.  It normally depended on which one of them the person in question wanted to sleep with.

Tony hears all of it.  It would have been funny, had the comments not annoyed her so much, how far he will go to defend her while trying to avoid giving her any clue that something was wrong, the glares and the constant arm around her shoulders and the muttered warnings to stay away from this man or that one, until she's banned from talking to almost every man that they had seen who was not in their immediate group of friends.

 _He's handling it quite well,_ she thinks, smiling around the rim of her martini glass, watching as one more comment about her finds its way to his ears while he's playing pool, the way he pauses in the middle of his shot and straightens up and stares across the room, like he's deciding whether or not to rise to the bait.

Normally, he would have gone with not.

Normally, he would have turned away and went back to the game with the justification that Pepper had no idea, after all, and she would never give any clue that she had understood it, so no harm was done.

Normally, the man making the comments knew when to stop.

This one didn't.

"Hey.  Tony."  He's got a thick accent that make the words easy to understand, but now everyone is paying attention. He also might be a little drunk.  "How much did you have to pay her to get her to sleep with you for this long?"

Tony doesn't answer back.  If it were Pepper, she would have quipped something back about how natural talent was enough to make her stay, but she was still staring at the poo game with a look on her face that she hoped was mild interest.  

"You hear me?"  The man -someone responsible for advancements in alternative energy- winds around the tables to get a little closer, despite the hands reaching out to hold him back.   "Is she good?  She looks like she would be."  Another step.  "Could I have a turn when you're done with her?"

It's not the worst thing that has been said during this conference, not even close, but it is the first thing that was said right to Tony's face and not through whispers, so Pepper wasn't really surprised at what happened next.

Tony punched him.  It happened so fast that no one was able to stop it, and then the man was sent sprawling, coming back up swinging with a pool stick in hand.  Tony ducks, and it crashes into the light hanging down from the ceiling, and Pepper loses sight of it for a moment as she slips of the bar stool and goes running towards him.  By the time she gets there, hands running frantically over Tony's face to find where the blood was coming from, the man is pinned down on the pool table.

"There she is."  He didn't know when to stop, apparently, and Tony tenses all over again.   "Running over to-,"

"For the love of God, will you shut up?"  She didn't think about saying it, about how she had been making Tony translate all week and how many people she had feigned misunderstanding in front of, only that she wanted him to be quiet and stop talking about her, so when she spoke, the words came out in perfect, ringing Italian.  "Do you ever get tired of hearing the sound of your own voice?"  She stares down at him, savoring the look of surprise on his and everyone else's faces.  "Such an idiot, honestly."

Tony blinked at her.  "You speak Italian?"

"Yes."  A napkin was shoved into her hand from someone in the crowd and she presses it to his bleeding cheek, which had been caught by one of the splinters from the pool stick.  "Which you would know, if you actually looked through my resume like you told me."

"It was an extensive resume-,"

"It was three categories."

"There were a lot of applicants,"

"Which were only valued based on the picture you required them to send in."

"Alright."  Tony smiled at her.  "So I just looked at your picture.  You should be flattered."

"You only picked me because it was a headshot and you wanted to see what the rest of me looked like."

"No."  He took the napkin from her, and the rest of the room seemed to be going back to their own conversations, a few of the men sending uneasy glances her way.  It's like they had been leaving anonymous comments on her facebook profile for the past few days only to find that she could see their username the whole time.  "I picked it because you have a gorgeous face."

Pepper laughed, a giggle, actually.  Part of her wished that the spotlight was still on the two of them, so she could stand up and say the things she had been thinking all week, like  _hey, by the way, if anyone still actually cares, me and tony aren't an item, though I do realize that some of you -even the married ones- do get confused about the difference between an assistant and a girlfriend, but fortunately for me, Tony isn't quite the egoistic pig the rest of you are._

But maybe this was better, with it being the two of them again, close enough that she can hear him even over the continuing clamor around them.

"Any other hidden talents?"

"I can speak French.  And a bit of Spanish."  She smiled apologetically, because she had made him translate those, too.  "And I make a really good pie crust."

"Pie."  He nods, and she wonders if she was in trouble for hiding this, but then he just smiles, the tiny one that still hides his teeth.  ( _Apparently, one of his baby teeth had this awful black spot on it and he learned to hide it, so now whenever he's feeling self conscious, that's how he smiles_.) "That one wasn't on your resume."

"No, it wasn't."  She let her hands drop away from him, aware that hanging all over him would not help her argue the we're-not-actually-screwing point that she's trying to make people understand. "Maybe you should read it sometime.  Avoid any other surprises."

"Maybe I will."  

He won't.  Pepper knows that he won't, but that's okay.  It's not like he's going to fire her anytime soon.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on Instagram @olive.writes.fanfic


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